Page 9 of Friends Don't Kiss

“How come you’re all dressed up for your grams’ birthday?” I’ve met her grandmother once. She came to Sunrise Farms a few years back. I remember her as a laid-back, no-nonsense type. Hard to picture her hosting a fancy party.

“Ugh.” She presses the back of her head against the seat. “Peer pressure and shit.”

“Peer pressure? You?”

She waves dismissively at me. “You don’t wanna know.”

I kinda do want to hear why one of my best friends, a badass who doesn’t take shit from anyone, is suddenly feeling peer pressure over her grandmother’s birthday party.

Now again, I haven’t met her family. All I know is, when Kiara came into my life, some bad shit had happened to her. But we’d only met recently, so I never asked for specifics. “What’s your family like?”

“They’re nothing like me. Except Grams. She gets me.”

“That’s too bad,” I say. I’m not a big talker, so I can’t blame her for not opening up.

She chuckles bitterly.

“What’s it going to be like? That party.”

She takes a deep breath. “Mostly nice people who’ll be happy to see me. A couple who won’t and will make my evening a nightmare.”

My blood boils. “And who are these assholes?”

She looks out the passenger window. “My mother and my sister.”

Oh shit. Didn’t expect that. Although, thinking about it… All I can come up with for an answer is a sympathetic grunt.

“Why did you become a pastry chef again?”

“I thought I told you.”

She did. She totally did. But it’s a story I like to hear over and over.

“I don’t think so. I’d remember.”

“Yeah. Maybe get your memory checked. Or better, check yourself into an Alzheimer’s unit already.”

I smirk and come up with something that’ll rile her. “You said you liked the colors.”

“See?” She jolts back to look at me. “You remember.”

“There was something about working night shifts,” I say, pushing her a little. When I came across Kiara, she was homeless, working nights so she was safer sleeping in her car during the day.

She turns her face to me, forcing a tight smile. “I’m gonna be alright, Colt. Scout’s honor. Just bummed I’m also missing opening day at Red Mountain.”

“If you say so, grasshopper.”

We stay silent for a while. She plugs her phone in, and the directions to her grams’ house pop on the oversized console screen.

Her silence is making me nervous. I’m not used to her being quiet. “You sure it’s not too hot in here? For the pastries?”

“It’ll be fine. They’re not meant to be eaten straight from the fridge anyway,” she states, matter-of-fact. The soft swoosh of an incoming text on her phone sounds through the cab. She jumps when the text displays on the truck’s screen and scrambles to exit it. Not fast enough.

Mother

What’s his name??

What’s going on? Why is Kiara trying to hide something from me? “Whose name?”

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